I would test the drive in a pc first. Does the power supply have any caps that has dome tops or leaking? The welcome screen loop is going to be a HDD or power supply. Hope that helps. Ops what model S3 do you have?

I have a Tivo Series 3 (not sure if that is what you were asking)... I will try to look at the power supply but suspect the HDD since there is no effect if I remove the Cable Cards (the boot loop continues).

I have a Tivo Series 3 (not sure if that is what you were asking)... I will try to look at the power supply but suspect the HDD since there is no effect if I remove the Cable Cards (the boot loop continues).

There or three models of the series 3 "TCD648250B" "TCD652160" "TCD658000" it will be on the service tag on the back with the TIN number. If it's the TCD648250B like I think it is the caps or going to fail. But what you said you replaced the power supply but you still could have some bad caps but I would bet your HDD is toast. DO you have a image file to build a new drive and the software? IF you need any help please let me know and I can give you what I can. I see your in Tx I'm in Baton Rouge, if you run in to a brick wall PM me and I can try some things with you. Have a great one... Tim

replaytv & jrtroo I have to agree with both of you guys....
I think it would be a lot cheaper to buy a unsub S3 off eBay and try power supply swap. I see so many post about a curtain company's rebuild P/S going bad after a year.

replaytv & jrtroo I have to agree with both of you guys....
I think it would be a lot cheaper to buy a unsub S3 off eBay and try power supply swap. I see so many post about a curtain company's rebuild P/S going bad after a year.

I think the deal is that they are not rebuilt.

In other words, they are working pulls from units with some other problem that surfaced early on, or they are new old stock which was never installed in a TiVo before, which means they have the same bogus caps which are going to go bad prematurely once they started getting plugged in and used.

In other words, they are working pulls from units with some other problem that surfaced early on, or they are new old stock which was never installed in a TiVo before, which means they have the same bogus caps which are going to go bad prematurely once they started getting plugged in and used.

I bet they just place it in a test unit and if it gets past the welcome screen it's marked good. What a shame it take me about 10 minutes to recap "all the caps" and less than 12 bucks in parts. Wow and the price OMG

I confirmed the P/S is good (no blown caps). Received my replacement HDD yesterday; installed it and back up and running. I suspected the HDD since for the past month my video lockups were increasing. Should have tested the HDD before the failure.

Since you have the old drive out you should test it now to confirm it was the drive as it could have been the software. Out of about a dozen broken Tivos I've seen, only one actually had a bad drive. Most started working again after overwriting the drive with a new drive image.

I confirmed the P/S is good (no blown caps). Received my replacement HDD yesterday; installed it and back up and running. I suspected the HDD since for the past month my video lockups were increasing. Should have tested the HDD before the failure.

The way you confirm that the power supply is good is with a Voltmeter (although you could also use an oscilloscope).

To be nitpicky, you could test the caps with some specialized gear, but that only tests the caps, not the entire power supply.

Caps can be bad or going bad without showing visible signs.

The reverse is not true, however. If you can see swelling or leakage, you know that one is bad.

Since you have the old drive out you should test it now to confirm it was the drive as it could have been the software. Out of about a dozen broken Tivos I've seen, only one actually had a bad drive. Most started working again after overwriting the drive with a new drive image.

I've seen this too, a great many times. Especially with TiVo HDs & Premieres.

Out of about 12 drives, 10 just had corrupted data, but nothing wrong with the drives. One had a few bad sectors, the other just plain failed.

I'm growing weary of the circus and parade about power supply recapping, and the extreme, often improper, over-usage of the term "capacitor plague".

If I repaired everything that *might* have something wrong with it, or *might* fail some unknown time in the future, I'd never have time to watch TiVo, since I'd be far too busy fixing things that aren't broken...